Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for processing an image.
Description of the Related Art
A technology for an optical coherence tomography (OCT) apparatus is applied to the medical field. An ophthalmic tomographic image photographing apparatus enables three-dimensional observation of an internal state of a retina layer. This tomographic image photographing apparatus has become popular for its capability of more appropriately diagnosing diseases.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-073099 discloses a technology of obtaining a position of a layer boundary by sequentially referring to pixel values of a tomographic image along a depth direction of a fundus in a conventional technology for retinal layer analysis. An ophthalmological diagnosis, which necessitates grasping in units of layers that form a retina, involves displaying of a form and a thickness of each layer on the tomographic image of the retina or three-dimensional displaying in units of layers.
Here, an examiner sometimes wishes to correct a position of a layer boundary of a retina by an editing operation. Further, in recent years, the number of layers in demand has been increasing more than before owing to an increase in image quality of a tomographic image, an improvement in analysis accuracy, and the like. At this time, if the number of layer boundaries of the retina in the tomographic image increases, the editing operation for positions thereof becomes complicated.